SD cards & MP3

 

I did some experimenting with MP3s on SD cards...and had some conversations with a helpful Garmin tech.

Turns out that the MP3s should NOT be put in subfolders (e.g. album names) in the MP3 folder on the SD card. Doing so causes some of the MP3 to not load, sometimes an entire subfolder is skipped. The results seem to be real random.

I also found that the more you put on an SD card, the longer the unit takes to "boot up". I initially thought it had "locked up" and told her so, but eventually the unit "unlocked".

After being turned on and 'accept'ing the ULA, the unit loads MP3s, custom POIs and draws the initial map.

What happened with a heavy footprint MP3 SD card was that the MP3 player and the custom POI display showed the "hourglass" display of dots moving in a circle, while the map view said "drawing" and showed nothing else...for a long time. I thought it was frozen, but eventually all resolved to normal displays.

In the process, I did some experimenting with number/size of MP3s and size of SD cards....monitoring how long it took before all the MP3s and POIs were loaded and the initial map view was drawn. Here are the results:

# of MP3s...SD Card Size.....Time to draw map (min:sec)
---------......------------...........------------------
1119........4gb (used 4gb).........5:50

.none.......none........................0:05

.580........4gb (used 2gb).........2:00

.551........2gb (used 2gb).........1:40

So...a 4gb card is costly in 'boot' time, more so if it's full. A 2gb card is better. None is, or course, the best.

I haven't done any research on what the load of MP3s does to mapping and guidance performance....yet.

pp

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Old Guys Rule
Page 1>>

This sucks...

It seems Garmin has poor file system support. You can not organize the songs then and have to be playing just a long sequence without the possibility of quick navigation through albums and collections.

--
The only things you regret in life are the chances you never take.

Thanks

That is very interesting. Thanks for the data.

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Garmin Nuvi 750 & c530 with RT's vol. mod., Vulcan Nomad

MP3 support

While YOU can't organize your MP3s, the nuvi (mines a 660) still does do it ... you still get to see them by artist or album thru the unit. You just can't organize them on the card.

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Old Guys Rule

I have a nuvi 660. I copied

I have a nuvi 660. I copied my .mp3 files onto the SD card into seperate artist/album folders. 362 songs, 194 folders, 1.79 gb on a 2gb sd card. I have not noticed a lag in loading maps. about 10 seconds this morning. I checked the music directory, no way to be sure, but it seemed to list all songs...

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Garmin Nuvi 660, GTM 20 Traffic Receiver, eTrex Vista HCx, Mapsource US Topo Maps 2008, Mapsource MetroGuide USA V.5 with MetroGold

I have my mp3s in separate

I have my mp3s in separate subfolder and it works fine.

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

MP3s on SD card

I have noticed quite a bit of difference between 2 gig & 4 gig cards. Tech support at garmin says that the nuvi 650 supports up to 4 gig cards but if you use the SDHD cards the unit may damage the card(not the other way around). But I have noticed quite a lot more lag time on the 4 gig card, and subfolder problems. My advice is to use multiple 2 gig cards.

Folders worked for me...sorta

Yep...2gb cards work much better.

Garmin told me to avoid subfolders.

And I did observe that on one particular album, all the songs were never listed when in subfolders...just some. Sometimes that album wasn't even loaded. Until I removed the subfolder structure, as advised.

As someone mentioned above, I too didn't know what else didn't get loaded. With 2gb accounting for over 500 songs, a few missing would probably not be noticed. I just happened to be concentrating on that one album...so I noticed. Removing the subfolders solved the problem.

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Old Guys Rule

"a separate subfolder"

What I had to start with was a folder for each album. You must put mp3s in an MP3 folder on the card, according to Garmin. Just avoid additional levels of what she called 'sub-categories'.

I'm not saying that subfolders won't work. They appeared to me on the surface "to work"...but that appearance of normality was an illusion.

I saw some flakiness with them and the Garmin tech was adament about me not using them. Since I abandoned them, the flakiness is gone.

YMMV

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Old Guys Rule

Nuvi 660 and SD cards

Hi, everyone,

My 660 shows an internal memory capacity of 1.87gb. It shows 730mb free. The first thing I did after getting it was delete all files that I deemed unnecessary, such as the voice files, except for, "Jack". Deleting these files freed up a lot of memory. I used some of it to load 109mb worth of family photos. I'm using a 2gb SD card to hold MP3's and custom POI's. I have 15 80 minute tracks of "hylitradio.com" on this card (I like my oldies). A total of 1095mb worth. They are not stored in a named folder. Each track is roughly 73mb. I have 79mb of topo maps and 1.96mb of custom POI's. Data on my SD card stays on the SD card. I don't load it onto the 660.

From a cold start, my 660, with the SD card inserted, took 41 seconds to boot, draw maps and be ready to navigate. From a warm start, with or without the SD card, my 660 took 18 seconds to boot, draw maps and be ready to navigate.

It doesn't appear that data on the SD card has any bearing on how long my 660 takes to initialize. All MP3's play perfectly.

Miki

,

The GPS units won't read the folder structure. They read the track tags, so the essential element is to ensure that your files are properly tagged.

And if they aren't, you can

And if they aren't, you can use Mp3 Tag Tools v1.2.008 (for free) to edit your mp3s. It can edit ID3v1.1 and ID3v2.x.

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

must have tags

The MP3s that don't get processed (show up) when in folders, do show up when not in folders...so they must have tags, right? They're the same MP3s. They show up in the unit when not in folders, yet don't when in folders.

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Old Guys Rule

That is weird, because in

That is weird, because in the "MP3" folder on the nuvi, I have multiple folders...

"braveheart"
"Bob marley"
etc

Now, I don't have any folders inside of the folders. Maybe that makes the difference.

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

Why do you want your gps to

Why do you want your gps to play mp3's? Doesn't that drain battery life?

.

When I have it connected to my motorcycle or car battery, it uses that power and not the internal battery. One of the reasons I got mine was to listen to MP3s while riding.

Mpegs!

cgreder wrote:

Why do you want your gps to play mp3's? Doesn't that drain battery life?

I want it to play mpegs!!!!

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

Guess what...

asianfire wrote:

I want it to play mpegs!!!!

Guess what, asianfire... Ain't gonna happen as they say in Denver. There is a model like that on the market, but the vendor is pretty unknown. Go to Amazon and you will find it.

The problem with MPGs is both legal and commercial. The legal problem is coming from the patent for video compression algoritms (so called codecs) are protected.

The commercial problem is... well you know where it is coming from. Who will buy the portable video players, which were about $1000 3 years ago. Now they are half of the price of a nuvi 760.

smile Cheers!

--
The only things you regret in life are the chances you never take.

Other devices do

etzvetanov wrote:
asianfire wrote:

I want it to play mpegs!!!!

Guess what, asianfire... Ain't gonna happen as they say in Denver. There is a model like that on the market, but the vendor is pretty unknown. Go to Amazon and you will find it.

The problem with MPGs is both legal and commercial. The legal problem is coming from the patent for video compression algoritms (so called codecs) are protected.

The commercial problem is... well you know where it is coming from. Who will buy the portable video players, which were about $1000 3 years ago. Now they are half of the price of a nuvi 760.

smile Cheers!

I don't see the problem legally, Ipods and Zumes (as well as other devices) can play mpegs back. But I am not a lawyer either.

I saw a Zume (or something like it) at walmart that could play mpegs for $199

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

The question is how "legal"...

asianfire wrote:

I don't see the problem legally, Ipods and Zumes (as well as other devices) can play mpegs back. But I am not a lawyer either.

I saw a Zume (or something like it) at walmart that could play mpegs for $199

The question is how "legal" is the usage of the codecs in these devices and are they using the open source ones? If so, it is not worth anything to them, but Garmin will probably never use open source, so they have to pay for it. I have to find the article to send it to you...

iPod is Apple and they have their own codecs. So for Apple it is not a problem at all.

--
The only things you regret in life are the chances you never take.

I'm not a lawyer...

But I have stayed at a HolidayInn express or two...

When buy a CD, you're not buying the music that's on it - you're buying a license to use it for personal, non-commercial purposes, and not playing it in places where more than a very small group of people can hear it as you play it. Any other use, and you should be buying a special license to use it....like as background music in a store, or in a bar...etc...they all pay extra license fees. When it comes to movies & videos - same kind of thing applies...and TV shows you record too...technically, you can record off tv whatever you want, keep it as long as you want as long as the copy never leaves your home - after that, they are subject to similar use restrictions.

And I'm sure you have heard, but not paid much attention to the legal disclaimers they read during pro sporting events on TV...the "...for the private use of our audiance..." thing...bars/restaurants pay license fees to have games on their TVs...

I know that's probably more than anyone wanted to know...

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Yeah, on NPR not too long

Yeah, on NPR not too long ago, they had a story about bars playing music and not paying the "public whatever" license fee.

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

On "I'm not a lawyer..."

smile I've done my share of listening to music and watching movies I "borrowed" from a web site..., but it not about the movies or the music.

My 2 cets were about the piece of software, which makes it work. Unlike MP3 codecs, which were not protected by any CR laws, the MPEG codecs are. So to play MPEG and DivX and Xvid files, your GPS has to use them. To write their own, they have to pay the patent fees or royalties and so on and so on. That was my point.

Plus as I mentioned before it is about marketing 2 different products instead of one. It is the money making machine, not the one that buzzes over your head to check if it is legal smile

--
The only things you regret in life are the chances you never take.

MP3s

Is there a specific reason for making the MP3 folder, instead of just putting the files directly onto the root directory of the card? Or is it just an organizational thing?

organizational thing

organizational thing

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Charley - Nuvi 350 - Bel STI Driver - Cobra 29 w/ wilson 1000 - AIM: asianfire -

.

ralphy1 wrote:

Is there a specific reason for making the MP3 folder, instead of just putting the files directly onto the root directory of the card? Or is it just an organizational thing?

The root folder has a limit to the number of files that can be put in it. Using a folder eliminates this issue.

mine does it...

etzvetanov wrote:
asianfire wrote:

I want it to play mpegs!!!!

Guess what, asianfire... Ain't gonna happen as they say in Denver. There is a model like that on the market, but the vendor is pretty unknown. Go to Amazon and you will find it.

The problem with MPGs is both legal and commercial. The legal problem is coming from the patent for video compression algoritms (so called codecs) are protected.

The commercial problem is... well you know where it is coming from. Who will buy the portable video players, which were about $1000 3 years ago. Now they are half of the price of a nuvi 760.

smile Cheers!

I have been doing it that way for years with some of my GPS devices that have Microsoft Windows Mobile. My latest one is the HTC TyTNII (AT&T Tilt).

That bad boy mobile device has it all.

Windows Media Player for music, video, pictures, recorded TV, custom playlist, sync with desktop, etc

in addition to being a phone, GPS, Internet Explorer, Outlook for email, calendar, contacts, tasks, Office for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. I will just stop because it basically is a computer in your pocket with integrated GPS. So I can run the GPS program of my choice ( I have CoPilot, TomTom, and Pharos right now loaded. I don't use Garmin Mobile because it is much inferior on this platform compared to the others)It uses the SDHC standard for high capacity microSD and the best part is.... all for less money than I could buy the 760 for.

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nüvi 680, nüvi 770, Garmin Mobile XT, etc...

256

ralphy1 wrote:

Is there a specific reason for making the MP3 folder, instead of just putting the files directly onto the root directory of the card? Or is it just an organizational thing?

If I still remember my DOS days, the root directory can only hold 256 files or folders.

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Rodney.. oditius.htc@gmail.com BMW Zumo 550 HTC Touch Pro - Garmin XT

MP3 File Organization

Soooooooo....... My Nuvi 760 should arrive next week. I'm somewhat confused by the "put them all into one folder" thing for mp3 files. How in the world does the unit display them? It seems they would just all show as one big jumble of files with no organization at all. Is that correct?

It seems that putting one mp3 folder which contains a separate folder for each album or artist would make much more sense.

Can someone please explain to me how this works?

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

Single Folder

What I did on my 660 was to create one folder on my SDHC card called mp3. I put all the mp3 files into that folder. I then created various m3u playlist files and put them in the same folder with the mp3 files.

When I want to play, I touch Travel Kit>MP3 Player>Browse>Import Playlist and then touch the playlist I want. Since each of my mp3 files have the Artist, Album and Genre information filled in, I can also select what I want to listen to by selecting one of those.

If I'm already in Map View, I touch the music icon which brings up the mp3 player and touch Browse from there.

With this setup, I've not found a need to create subfolders.

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

Ahhhhhhhhh..........

Thanks. I've never had an mp3 player before. (Yeah, I know, I'm old and weird.) Playlists make perfect sense. I'll have to experiment a bit I guess when it comes to making playlists and figuring out how to do what you said regarding having the Artist, Album, and Genre info in the file. There must be a simple tutorial out there for the mp3 n00b.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

Organizing MP3s

thrak wrote:

How in the world does the unit display them? It seems they would just all show as one big jumble of files with no organization at all. Is that correct?

Thats what MP# Tags are for, You can organize by Album, Genre, and any other way you want by using the MP3 Tags

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"Those that stop and smell the roses, must realize that once in awhile you may get a whiff of fertilizer."..copyright:HDHannah1986 -Mercedes GPS - UCONNECT 430N Chrysler T&C - Nuvi 2598- Nuni2555 - Nuvi855 - Nuvi295W - Nuvi 750 - Ique 3600

Creating Playlists

If you search this forum, you'll find several topics here that talk about creating playlists. Different people have different methods that they like.

I use Windows Notepad. A little crude, granted, but I've just gotten used to doing it that way. By NOT making subfolders on the SDHC card, it makes creating the playlist file much easier because you don't have to include the subfolder name when you make the list. Just make sure the playlist file is in the same folder as the mp3's themselves, on the SD card.

When you are done creating your playlist and want to save the file with Notepad, select "Save As" and not "Save". By default, the "Save" function in Notepad will save the file with a .txt extension. The "Save As" function needs to be used instead because the filename extension has to be changed to .m3u. For example, playlist01.m3u would work. Here is a sample of one of mine:

George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone.mp3
Heart - Straight On.mp3
Humble Pie - 30 Days In The Hole.mp3
Deep Purple - Hush.mp3
Eagles - Victim Of Love.mp3
Bob Seger - Come To Papa.mp3
ZZ Top - Tush.mp3

(Yeah, I'm a '70s rocker type)

A long time ago, I got into the habit of using one naming convention for all my mp3's: Artist[space][dash][space]Title

But it really doesn't matter for this purpose.

I've found that most songs I've downloaded or ripped from a CD contain the Artist, Album, Genre, Year, Track #, etc., tag information. Songs that I converted from old cassette tapes or vinyl records, do not. The tag information has to entered manually. But its easy enough to check and edit if necessary.

I use winXP and if I open My Music from the Start button and then single right click on any mp3 filename, it displays a context menu. The last item in the menu list is Properties - single left click on Properties. That will open a window with 2 tabs, left click on the Summary tab. The Summary window has 2 choices, pick the Advanced mode. There, you will see the Artist, Title, Year, etc tag information. If the tags are not already filled in, all of these data fields can be edited right there in that window. Simply left click in the desired field to the right of the label (Artist, for example) and enter the information. When you are done editing all the tags, left click on the OK button and the file will be saved with this information added.

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

Wow!

Now that's a very complete and well written response. Very cool indeed. I'll just copy and paste that one into an email to myself for future reference. I have a bunch of old mp3 files accumulated from various sources and will be ripping more from CD. I may well have a number of files and playlists ready to go when my Nuvi arrives. I bought a Sandisk 2GB SD card today at lunch so I can actually get busy fiddling with files and have stuff ready to go in advance.

Many thanks for the thorough reply.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

You Don't Need All The Tags

I'm not sure how your 760 works, but my 660 can only sort mp3 files by Album, Artist & Genre, so you don't have to fill in the other tags like Year, Track, Lyrics, etc. unless you want to. I usually fill in the song Title because it will display along with the Artist when viewing the mp3 player screen during playback.

Sometimes I can get too picky and want to fill in every tag. If I don't have the original source handy, I find myself spending lots of time online trying to find and research the information. It can get very time consuming. I mean really, how important is it to fill in who wrote the lyrics? confused

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

.

Also, in addition to all the great information already provided, you can use Media Monkey to tag your MP3 files.

Re Creating Playlist

When you are copying MP3's to the card are you doing it with the card in the GPS unit attached to the computer via the USB cable or with the card in a card reader? And does this have any effect on the result.
I transferred some MP3's to the GPS (Nüvi 680) with
the card in the unit and attached via the usb cable.
They are organized by album. A Card reader would seem
to work. 1 SD card oldies, 1 SD card Jimmy Buffett,

I just purchased the nüvi a few days ago, and it's my
first GPS. The playlist tip seems to make sense as I'm used to iTunes and you can tag there. I don't really need the nüvi to play MP3's as I have 2 ipods but I want to check out it's capabilities. You don't have the option on an ipod to swap out a SD card and this could be a back up strategy.

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"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" Garmin Nüvi 680

Big Difference

Fishking54 wrote:

I don't really need the nüvi to play MP3's as I have 2 ipods but I want to check out it's capabilities. You don't have the option on an ipod to swap out a SD card and this could be a back up strategy.

Nor will your iPod stop playing a book on tape when a direction is given -- the Nuvi will. If you only listen to music, perhaps it is unimportant.

--
Nuvi 660 -- and not upgrading it or maps until Garmin fixes long-standing bugs/problems, and get maps to where they are much more current, AND corrected on a more timely basis when advised of mistakes.

Good point, My ipod knows

Good point, My ipod knows where I left off on my book,
or podcast. The Garmin just has Play All. Steve Jobs
please acquire Garmin.

I can probably program a playlist but I havn't mastered that yet on my 3 day old nüvi.

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"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" Garmin Nüvi 680

2 v 4 gb sd card

I really notice it takes much longer loading maps when I use a 4gb card with my 670.

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nüvi 660 & 670 - Hello I'm a Mac :))

nüvi 680 boot

With a 1GB card a brand new nüvi 680 boots fast.
I don't have much on the card. 100 mp3's. Less than one minuet from power on to accuire the map.

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"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" Garmin Nüvi 680

.

One other thing that I would add.

You don't NEED to make playlists in order for the MP3 player to function. As mentioned above, the GPS unit will read the track tags. It pays NO ATTENTION to the folder structure.

If the files are tagged properly, you will get options within the MP3 player to "Play All", to play a single song, to play all the tracks on an album or to play all the songs in a genre. And those songs that aren't tagged properly will still show up, but they will be under Unknown or Other.

The Garmin Remembers Too

Fishking54 wrote:

Good point, My ipod knows where I left off on my book,
or podcast. The Garmin just has Play All. Steve Jobs
please acquire Garmin.

I can probably program a playlist but I havn't mastered that yet on my 3 day old nüvi.

The Garmin remembers where it left off also.

When I have been traveling, listening to mp3s and reach my destination, I let the 660 power off and take it with me when I leave the car (hint, hint, please read the "Stolen!!!" topic) after hiding the power cable and friction beanbag mount. When I get back in the car, power up the nuvi and start the mp3 player, it picks up right where it left off - even in mid-song. cool I would think it would work the same way for books.

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

The Garmin Remembers Too

Yes, it remembers your place on books also. I have DL Audible.com books and have several on the SD card. It picks up where I left off on each even if I switch between them.

Another way to do it

I have a 2GB card and use it for pictures and music. I set up a directory called pictures and a directory called music. I then just drag my music mp3 files from my PC to that music folder. Here is the key however. I use MusicMatch jukebox to store over 300GB of music (I believe Yahoo bought out MusicMatch). When entering music into musicmatch, it puts all the tags in for you (album, artist, genre). So when I go to my GPS unit, hit travel kit, MP3 Player and then go to the bottom of the screen and hit Browse, it allows me to play by "all", by "album", by "artist", or by "Genre".

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Larry - Nuvi 680, Nuvi 1690, Nuvi 2797LMT

Bookmark?

mgreen2 wrote:

Yes, it remembers your place on books also. I have DL Audible.com books and have several on the SD card. It picks up where I left off on each even if I switch between them.

Do you have to make a bookmark at the spot or does it automagically do that for you?

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

Playlist as Genre?

Motorcycle Mama wrote:

...You don't NEED to make playlists in order for the MP3 player to function. As mentioned above, the GPS unit will read the track tags. It pays NO ATTENTION to the folder structure...

That's what I found out and once I started editing track numbers I thought about playlists again - thus my questions.

Would the player recognize custom genre names? Seems like I could change genre to my playlist name and the track to my order and have exactly what I'm wanting.

What do you think?

Also, I can't remember the name of the app to change a bunch of mp3 files. Can you pass that along also?

--
Earle

.

Yeah, the Genre can be anything you put in there. So, if you tag all the songs you want to play in a certain list "Earle" and then if you select Genre "Earle", those songs will play.

If you really want to control the play order, then playlists are the way to do this. And they are fairly simple to do with the software.

I use Media Monkey. It's free and fairly simple. Also, in Windows XP, you can edit the track tags manually by right clicking on the file and selecting Properties and then Summary and then Advanced (if necessary). Then just click on the information you want to change and edit it. This is useful if you just want to quickly edit a few songs.

Too Cool!!

I tried it and it worked just as you said! I have to have playlists like "Happy" "Romantic" "Pissed_Off" "Wake_Up", etc.

Now to get busy....

Thanks

--
Earle

Noooooooooooooooooo...........

Fishking54 wrote:

Good point, My ipod knows where I left off on my book,
or podcast. The Garmin just has Play All. Steve Jobs
please acquire Garmin.

I can probably program a playlist but I havn't mastered that yet on my 3 day old nüvi.

OMG! Please don't wish Jobs on the Garmin folks. Everything he touches he makes horridly proprietary. If Steve Jobs acquired Garmin we'd all have to use HIS format of music and HIS format of everything. There's a very good reason why Apple only has around 4% of the computer market.......

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

Re Jobs

He does own the mp3 aac player market.
I only buy from Amazon, unprotected mp3's.
I'm not a MAC user. My primary PC is running
Linux Debian (Linspire 5-O) I have a Windows
PC as a backup.

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"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" Garmin Nüvi 680
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